Depending on where you stand, the Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company is a savvy 145-year-old brewery that has evolved with the times, a cultural touchstone for nostalgic residents of the Upper Midwest, or a middling brewer with an evil corporate parent.

“We have competitors who don’t think we’re craft,” Leinenkugel said this week in Denver, an early stop on a 22-market promotional tour that will stretch into the fall. “Well, we’ve been craft longer than you have.”

For 125 years, Leinenkugel’s was a small Midwestern regional brewery specializing in German helles lagers.

Then Jake Leinenkugel’s father, Bill, watched as contemporaries Fritz Maytag of Anchor Steam and Jim Koch of Boston Beer Co. started making bigger, bolder beers in the 1980s that consumers were willing to pay more for. (Back then, Leinie’s was going for 25 cents less “below premium” per six pack – premium being Miller High Life and Budweiser, Jake Leinenkugel said).

The brewery introduced a spring seasonal bock and then, later, a martzen for the fall. In the early 1990s, its Leinie’s Red Lager was brought out to challenge Killian’s Irish Red. Then came a honey weiss, the brewery’s first experiment with a wheat malt.

“I think they’re jealous, and maybe dismayed that we entered a partnership agreement with Miller in 1988,” said Leinenkugel, part of the fifth generation to brew beer in Chippewa Falls. “I get it. They want their own little club, and to exclude us.”

“I don’t apologize to anyone. We were smart enough to transform ourselves with the right beer at the right time.”

Leinenkugel is bothered by the balkanization of brewing, a division in the ranks that excludes breweries such as his from the Association of Craft Brewers because it is controlled by MillerCoors. (Leinenkugel is part of the macro-brewer’s 10th and Blake craft and import division, which also includes AC Golden and the Sandlot Brewery in Denver).

“We’re all brewers, regardless of size,” said Leinenkugel, “The big quandary is, can we as an industry put some of our egos and name calling behind us and concentrate on beer. How do we make it more interesting to a broader group of beer drinkers?”

Leinenkugel Brewing found one answer in its Summer Shandy, a low-alcohol (4.2 percent ABV) blend of beer and lemonade that was first released four years ago. According to Leinenkugel, 35 percent of Summer Shandy drinkers are not regular beer drinkers. The demographic skews slightly female, but not as much as the brewery had anticipated, he said.

But competition is coming from the big boys. According to Leinenkugel, Anheuser Busch InBev is expected to introduce a shandy-type offering under its Shock Top label as soon as in the next two weeks, and Samuel Adams is preparing to roll out a similar product.

At the same time, Leinenkugel’s is experimenting in beers good enough to serve in a tulip glass. Three years ago, it introduced its Big Eddy series, featuring a Russian Imperial Stout that pours an inky black and comes in at 9.5 percent ABV. Wee Heavy Scotch Ale was released this month, a double IPA due is in June, and a Baltic porter will arrive in the fall.

Colorado is expected to get a small allotment of about 100 cases of Wee Heavy, its first taste of the series, Leinenkugel said.

The Big Eddy series, he said, “is not a big volume play,” but rather “a credential-builder.”

“The Leinenkugel brewmasters can do this as well as anyone else in the world,” he said. “We’re giving them license to do that.”

Leinenkugel’s, he said, sees its biggest role as a gateway beer, not competition to craft. Although, if a craft beer drinker is looking for a clean, refreshing beer after mowing the lawn or taking a hike, he’d be happy if you occasionally chose a Leinie’s.

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